ashtanga yoga etc.

Folks’ House

When we last left our heroine, she had sacrificed a day of primary for the benefit of her hyperextended knees. Or something like that. Thursday morning I hauled my ass out of bed and rolled out the mat. My knees felt much better, and I was able to get a fairly solid practice in. My back was feeling a bit tight, so I skipped the drop-backs and just continued on to finishing after my 3 urdva dhanurasana’s, coming down just to my head in between each one. I checked the clock before salamba sarvangasana, and felt a mild sense of panic creeping on when I realized it was already after 7. I usually like to leave the house for work by 7:30. My rationale: the earlier I get to work, the earlier I can leave work. It took me a year or so to discover that the huge difference between leaving my desk at 4:30 and at 5:00 is so much more than a half hour. It’s a whole mind set. If I leave at 4:30, I’m ahead of the curve. I breeze through lines at the bank or the grocery store, and I have dinner ready before 7:00. But back to 7 a.m.. I skipped my inversions in favor of some time for meditation (5 minutes!!! but some is better than none!), just 18 breaths in Uth Pluthi (which is so much more difficult with no Padmasana), quick shower, than off to work. I wish I had had the ability to look into the future, as I had to stay until almost 5:30 to abate a few crises. So the ‘early to work, early to home’ theory doesn’t always work out.

Friday’s practice was also good. I’ve been working on my jumpbacks a bit, and I think I’ve finally got the motion. Before, I was planting my hands just in front of me, as I couldn’t figure out how to fit my crossed legs between my hands. I think I’ve got it now. On my exhale, I use my bandhas to pull my knees into my chest as I lift my body off, lean forward with my upper body, then throw my legs back through my arms to chaturanga. Of course, all this takes place in one second. This is definitely a jumpback, and now I’d like to finesse it a bit to make it more of a floatback. But I definitely need to work on my bandha strength. I did two dropbacks after my U.D.’s, stood up, but on the first I fell forward onto my knees. But it’s coming along quickly. At this point, I can’t imagine ever getting the breath right. I exhale on my dropback, or maybe I start to exhale, then grunt and hold my breath. Then my hands reach the floor. Then I pant for about three seconds. Sometimes longer. Then I walk my hands in, then I come up to my fingertips. Then I pant some more. I think I may hold my breath at this point, too. I probably am chanting in my mind, “pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease….” Then I stand up. And possibly fall forward. All very silly.

We left for Santa Cruz friday evening after work. We stopped in at Jaffa Cafe, a little greek place for some Gyros on the go. Got in to Santa Cruz at about 9:30. Kula loves coming to my folks’ house. First off, there’s cats. My poor mother ended up with two cats that aren’t even hers. One is mine, one is Yellow’s. The cats pretty much scatter when Kula comes, which is for the best. Also, there’s wilderness. Lots of big trees, a creek, and tons of quail, doves, robins, jays, and squirrels. Kula goes nuts. She’s been running for 3 days straight. She’ll be exhausted and depressed when we get back to SLO and the only wilderness she gets is the weeds in our backyard. Saturday morning we were up bright and early for my mom’s graduation. She got her masters in education from SJSU, along with her best friend. It was great to see them, they were so excited and they’ve both worked so hard. My mother works 60+ hours a week, sometimes putting in 12 hour days. On top of this, for two years she went to night classes for her masters. Impressive. After the graduation, us kids (me, Tay, my brother, and his girlfriend who’s also my college roommate and very good friend) stopped for lunch in Los Gatos. This whole “my brother’s dating my friend” thing has turned out to be a great situation. It was good to spend time with them, then we all went back to the house to help my mom and dad prep for a party. Graduation party? No. My dad’s 60th birthday party. It was a great time, lots of food, lots of wine (all Talley, of course!), and lots of old friends with great stories to share about my pop. Tay and I took a lazy morning to ourselves yesterday, headed downtown to the Pacific Garden Mall for breakfast at Walnut Street Cafe. On the way home, I saw a sale at the Patagonia outlet, so made Tay stop. Good thing we stopped. I love Patagonia…. but it’s just too durn overpriced. The outlet prices make the products much more financially feasible. And this weekend was their annual sale: 40% off everything in the store. 40% off of the OUTLET PRICES. Hells yes, ain’t that fresh. Taylor got a couple of jackets, I got a jacket, some yoga pants, a yoga top, and some long john bottoms. All this for $300. At retail, this is over $700 worth of stuff! We made out like bandits. Tay dropped me off at the house and headed out for a mountain bike ride. I got a good sweaty practice in, complete with jumpbacks through out and 4 dropbacks. Now, off to pack and sit in the car for a few hours.